FT MEADE 
GenCol1 


E 90 
.B85 H3 
Copy 2 
































% c° * 

>, W • 


v a o 



*° ^ - v -4fi;% % ^\s*sBBfcr. ^ sM^f a 



t< & 
**<? 



' L 

vP S 


v> "A J ° 

•* -o. v <£> -»j's^p^r -v x ’> ^ 

* ,G \i> *'..»* -A <V 

c ° v o, ,** ** 



O * A 




* / T 


*<• A 

v - ^ 

* v> ^ 

v 

„ A <K V • * 

A" o « a _ ^ ^ 

• -y ' -■ ^ 0 * ' ^o ^ 

, 0 ^ Ao, ' * A v\ 

a sK ■" ° .<5- ^ «. ■-AtC/ n * 

p, * ¥\\\vvv \. ^ 

'° V* —’V %♦-'•’/ *< 

* S ’*'.y ^ V !> ’ * & A S 

V, rfjtM 7STU ** ^ /• * <? *>! ♦ ^P x 4> 



A .^Va* ‘YSib'- 

'J' 9 


o 

o. - 
't' 

* • °„ o 

y . (Z 5) * -A a” 1 

° c> ♦ 

° "A A 

• /\, Amy * & •«!©*“■ A' •%. vk/j&v* 

^b v ,‘"*.'f'' ^ <, ■'?.;*■ <A %_ % - s <\ ^ "'■>•" 

A r"‘-, *+ C° V .‘LL‘% "°0 ]** ^ 

' -V5^*. ' ** ‘ 







vn ^ / 
j> V-. 


>»> 

& 


&'• 

& 






o V 


° A 

.' / o * 

•*•• <y v * 

V . 5j • a T> 

d> * _<?- r 

'A " ° ^ ' " s A 

<P . f\^ , 0 " ° * Cj < V 

a ,•— ' - 



•^0^ 


c 


o _ _____ 

* ,0 * 7 * * * < o 

y rv A- * A _ 

V' 1 *' V. " 3 " 0 0 ,<** c 

T> 



V r n Y • CV. .v 4-^, 

,’44'- V x* ^.-^Ifeik'- /. 

V A\»« //>i - ^ ^ 

r. sr^ij?? - "Wi; 

A + /. j , s 4 A <;'«•»* c> 

*P <Js> . / « <f> p. V o « o ^ 

^ °- A \* <, *P "° 0 - * ° 


^ O 

^5i 


^ A 
A V 



: • %. $ 


o 

o - 

CV A 

•«. ^ C A 

- A ^ - 

A <a 

- o > A, C k 




* ,0-/* * ■s/^L^r/^V? 4 o 

^ r\ j£* ^^^hYvvsa* h a 

• a 0 V *»«° ,r 

<9 *iVw'* A V ** Y " o 

^ ^ _ n A 4W; Xt ,9 

„„ w , y ..W* -9^ - AH^f'4'A a ,VA 

- ° 0 VJW * A •fc’ J A \A a^ A--- 


<f 



0*1. 


Li V :4«te 

aV ' ^ * 

^ 0 r O ' ^ * s 

** k •»'/ 
















O V 



o 

» ' * 

7^, - * < O . 

V * AAv 7rtf " Xv 

O o ^ *yai/tfs y o 

<, A ^ v O a.V^ 

v* 'mam- XX W - 

, j> % °*WMW' ^% 

- A aV a % 

~% C° ‘ ’ V?” '. °o -J,^ A 

^o* .‘fires**- -a ' 




* O ^ ° * 

M?*V A v A* * *S 

* ftV , ll( *U A 

C 0 t + 0 o 

*r -y . KJ ± V-P 

SX A 

o v 



0 




a * 

C-r^SZ/f Ij SW N -CL r xO «/■ I IVA^Ov. ^ O 

_ - -vj^- J , * tv/ _ * %vl\\Vs$^ s V- 

^ 0w a 0 ^p- *«-n* A- o * aa o 0 j 

s V*> V .*•«», % ,V s .. a OMO A 0 

- v c^> - A\\M//}i o 

v^ 


A 



V ^Xv A 1 

'; % s^ 

* Ax> 

. -* ** <#- 
'■’•*' A <. ^ 

,-‘A'*_ ° 0 A 4 .<-”4”-, <tp 

■* <N v 

• — —a : ^ ^ : 

K° i-°’V ** 

>• .o° ^ ‘*tta a A 

. w, ^ v % .JV^ % 

: .M/A° «> 

t» 4 


o 



o » ^ ^ ^ 


a» 


r 4> * 

0 0^ • 

% CV ^ 

" vA a*^ v a 

• At 

- A A 


V * ° - 0 






v^>- * 0 . 1 * A 


^ V , o N c ^ 


«* A 

^*0' 

< 

• 

• 4 O^ 

t> 

V) 

if 



/ 

^ ° • * 14 A <^. 

D V t * L J^ ^ -O c 0 w ° -» <K 

t -v^ -r O • _r^N\ *P 

f> \N * 

: »b^ : 


- ° »■ ^ 

u *“”°' > A° 

c\ .0 . * * • 

"Ta. a ^ ►«, 



' > H<: ^ l®*,* ^°A V 

O ^ \U^T * rv 

-’• A'~ °j. ‘•»-'> , a° ; ^ 

V »•• •'» c\ A . > • • - ^ 

A \V * / V^> A * ^ O ♦ ^W/k ° 

° - AT* Or * AW^ywi. o 

<• < V^ 

A 




































































- 























































EMPEROR BRIM 
“Always on well harnessed horses.” 




























STORIES OF OLD OCMULGEE FIELDS 


-w 


EMPEROR BRIM 

THE GREATEST AMERICAN INDIAN 


BY 


WALTER AT HARRIS 


MACON, GEORGIA 
THE J. W. BURKE COMPANY 
19 3 7 







C.o|p Y & 


Copyright 1937 
By 

WALTER A; HARRIS 


SEP -3 1937 


&ClA A 24261 5 


Dr . John R, Swanton 


Who gives the treasures of his wisdom and learning to the 
people of his country, and, with the modesty of a 
true gentleman and the humility of a real 
scientist, never considers the value 
of what he gives away. 




Foreword 


The acts and conduct of the Indian tribes of the South¬ 
east more directly and more vitally affected the existence 
of the English settlements in America than did those of 
the Indians of any other section. Unfortunately, they es¬ 
caped the notice of the Northern historians whose ex¬ 
cellent books have formed the basis of the American his¬ 
tory taught in our schools. Consequently, those born with¬ 
in the territory once held by the Creeks know a great deal 
about the Iroquois Confederacy and nothing about the 
Creek Confederacy. They have read much about the Con¬ 
spiracy of Pontiac and have never heard about the Yama- 
see War. They are familiar with King Philip and have 
never met Emperor Brim. 

The books of Swanton, of Bolton, of Crane, and of 
Lanning, supply the means of correcting the deficiencies 
in our knowledge of what happened in the Southeast dur¬ 
ing the colonial period, but it will be a long time before 
they are so widely read that the majority of the American 
people will cease to labor under the delusion created by 
the other historians that the history of this section in that 
time is a monotonous void. 

This little book is an effort to restore a great American 
to his lost place in the history of his native land. If, from 
its sale, there should be any net revenue, that will be 
turned over to the Macon Historical Society as the nucleus 
of a fund to erect a monument in Old Ocmulgee Fields to 
the memory of Emperor Brim. 




EMPEROR BRIM 

THE GREATEST AMERICAN INDIAN 


gg^JPANIARDS, Frenchmen, and Englishmen, who 
agreed about little else at the beginning of the 
eighteenth century, united in calling one Ameri¬ 
can Indian great. In his lifetime, his fame spread 
from his town in the piney-woods of the land that 
was to be Georgia to the capitals of the three great na¬ 
tions of Europe. Today, a little more than two hundred 
years after his death, we are not sure that we know even 
his name. Tobias Fitch, who conducted South Carolina’s 
final diplomatic negotiations with him, in the effort to 
represent the Indian sound of that name by English let¬ 
ters, spells it in seven different ways ranging from 
“Brmns” through “Briminis” to “Brunin.” 1 

The white men call him “Emperor of the Creeks.” 
Though his own people know no such title, it is fairly de¬ 
scriptive of his power and authority among them; for he 
is Chief of the “tall Coweta”, the red war-town whose 
prowess, before history begins, has won for it the he¬ 
gemony of the Muskogees and the other tribes that by 
force or by negotiation they have brought into their Con¬ 
federacy. 

We cannot tell with certainty just when he first appears 
upon the stage. When we are able to identify him definite¬ 
ly, he gives the impression of great age. “Old Brim”, the 
English call him then. 

So old he seems that we believe he must have been that 
Gran Cazique who was chief of the Coweta when the 
Spanish first pushed their canoes beyond the Apalachicola 
and found the Muskogees settled along the banks of the 
Chattahoochee; that Gran Cazique, exercising jurisdiction 
over eleven tribes, of whom Cabrera the Governor at St. 
Augustine wrote in 1682 to the King of Spain: “He is 


( 7 ) 





EMPEROR BRIM 


the chief most feared in all those lands that border on 
the Chucumecos and other provinces and give their al¬ 
legiance to the English settled in the province of San 
Jorge.” 2 

Quite in character of Brim as we afterwards know him, 
are the actions of that Gran Cazique as revealed by the 
Spanish letters. 

When the English come west of the Savannah, he al¬ 
lows some of his tribes to ask the Spanish for missiona¬ 
ries. Having looked the friars over for three days, he as¬ 
serts his imperial authority, repudiates the invitation, and 
drives the friars out of his dominions. When they come 
again with infantry at their backs, he lets them remain 
until he can gather his own forces in numbers sufficient to 
overawe the military escort and then drives churchmen 
and soldiers back to their settlements in Apalachee. Nev¬ 
ertheless, even as he expels them, he hedges against the 
day when he may need their help; and so as Father Gutier¬ 
rez leaves the Chattahoochee, that simple friar’s heart 
is more glad than sad; for he believes that he will soon 
be called back to baptize the Gran Cazique and bring him 
and his eleven tribes at once under the spiritual dominion 
of Holy Church and under the temporal authority of His 
Catholic Majesty. 3 

In 1685, with six other English adventurers, appears 
at Coweta the most fascinating figure that ever fared into 
the forest, Dr. Henry Woodward, speaking five Indian 
languages and possessing, as the Spanish Governor him¬ 
self writes, “a grand capacity and equal ingenuity.” 4 And 
now, as always with Brim, we are in doubt as to the mo¬ 
tives that actuate the Gran Cazique. Did he, as did all the 
other Indians who came in contact with Woodward, sur¬ 
render to his charm and love him enough to risk happiness 
and life itself for his sake? Or did the Gran Cazique see 
in the coming of the Englishmen an opportunity to use 


THE GREATEST AMERICAN INDIAN 


9 


their power and their arms to check the inexorable ad¬ 
vance of the Spaniards into his territory? Whatever his 
motive, he protected the Englishmen to his own hurt. 
Vainly the Spaniards, with hundreds of his bitterest ene¬ 
mies the Apalachees, marched through his villages. Vain¬ 
ly they tortured the few of his men who fell into the hands 
of their soldiers. Vainly they sought to come upon the 
Englishmen by surprise and strategem. Always the In¬ 
dians shielded Woodward and when he at last fell ill and 
could no longer play that grim game of hide and seek, 
they bore him on a stretcher escorted by a hundred and 
fifty of their best and bravest warriors through the for¬ 
ests and across the rivers to safety in Charleston. 

The Gran Cazique paid dearly for this loyalty to Wood¬ 
ward, if loyalty it was. His own Coweta town and its white 
sister, the Kasihta town, were laid in ashes. All his corn 
stored up to feed his people through the winter was car¬ 
ried away by the Spaniards and their Apalachee allies. 

While the Spaniards, angry and disappointed because of 
the escape of the Englishmen, were threatening yet more 
terrible vengeance against the Gran Cazique and his peo¬ 
ple, he did not hesitate to beg for mercy and profess his 
repentance. Just how sincere that repentance was, his 
next move showed; for when the Spaniards, determined 
to be on the ground when the Englishmen came again, 
built a fort among his villages and placed in it a mixed 
garrison of Spanish soldiers and the hated Apalachee, the 
Gran Cazique and his people abandoned those villages 
and slipped away to the Ocmulgee. 5 

This expatriation was probably no great wrench upon 
the heart-strings of his people; for if their tradition is true 
they, were only coming home to the place where they first 
sat down after their long journey from the west and 
formed their confederacy. 6 

After this time, 1690, the policy of the Creek Confed- 


10 


EMPEROR BRIM 


cracy is wholly the policy of Brim. It is a policy often ap¬ 
proved and acted upon by the white men in their own 
international affairs. Not Wolsey, nor any other British 
or European statesman, ever more firmly believed in the 
doctrine of the balance of power or more dexterously ap¬ 
plied it for the advantage of his own people. 

Consider the situation of the Creek Confederacy at 
the end of the seventeenth century. It is no powerful em¬ 
pire able to crush its enemies by weight of numbers. The 
French and the South Carolinians acting independently un¬ 
dertake at approximately the same time to ascertain what 
force the Creeks can put into the field. Their figures agree 
amazingly that the Creek warriors do not number more 
than two thousand. 7 These are not well-armed and fully 
equipped soldiers. Among their bows and spears and stone 
axes are only a few fire-arms hardly obtained by trade or 
capture from the Europeans, Nor is the Confederacy a 
unified nation. If there was ever a time when it acted as 
a unit, that time has passed. There is an .ever-widening 
division between the Upper Creeks and the Lower Creeks 
that makes them more and more disposed to act independ¬ 
ently. Be it said, in passing, to the credit of Old Brim 
that in the years to come, with consummate craft, he used 
this very division of his own people to preserve the bal¬ 
ance of power among the three white powers that threat¬ 
ened his territory. 

The Creeks have forced themselves into a country oc¬ 
cupied by other Indians of whom those that they have not 
admitted to their Confederacy remain their bitter enemies. 
They claim dominion over “the lands from the river Sa¬ 
vannah to the river St. John’s, and all the islands between 
said rivers, and from the river St John’s to the bay of 
Apalachee, within which is the Apalachee Old-Fields; and 
from said bay of Apalachee to the mountains”, and they 
will afterwards assert in the treaty which they will make 


THE GREATEST AMERICAN INDIAN 


11 


with Oglethorpe in 1739 that they can prove their ancient 
right by “the heaps of bones of their enemies, slain by 
them in defense of said lands.” 8 

North of them are the Cherokees, cherished as their 
dearest enemies. Northwest of them are the Chickasaws, 
their blood brethren nov^ estranged and ready to join 
their foes. South of them are the Apalachees, “very tall, 
very valiant, and full of spirit”, 9 baptized, armed, and 
taught the Christian art of war by the Spaniards. West 
of them are the Choctaws, outnumbering them more than 
two to one and acting with amazing faithfulness in the 
interest of the French. East of them the English are fast 
detaching the inhabitants of ancient Guale from their al¬ 
legiance to Spain and to the religion that the Spanish 
friars have taught them and inducing them to move closer 
to Charleston and form a friendly barrier around that 
infant colony. 

More menacing than those red enemies are the white 
men who are reaching oiit ( their hands for the Creek ter¬ 
ritory. Spain, France, and England base their claims 
against one another upon prior discovery and occupation. 
Not until Oglethorpe comes, will any white man think it 
advisable to base his own claim to the territory on right 
derived from the Creeks. 

The Spanish, first to discover the land and first to es¬ 
tablish settlements in the Southeast, have sodong con¬ 
sidered the territory theirs for the taking that they have 
lost the aggressiveness that pushed their marching columns 
through Mexico and Peru and carried De Soto’s cavaliers 
across the Southeast even to the Mississippi. Nevertheless 
when their right to lord it in this land is challenged they 
can still strike with an energy and a cruelty that recalls 
the Conquistadores. 

The French as usual have thought through. They know 
what they are doing and where they are going. Unless 


12 


EMPEROR BRIM 


something stops them, they will encircle the English and 
drive them from their narrow strip of land into the sea. 
Already the two great sons of Charles Le Moyne have 
planted their settlements on the Gulf-coast, have pushed 
up the Mississippi and formed their everlasting alliance 
with the Choctaws, and have advanced eastward until 
they have reached Mobile Bay. 

It is well for the English that their pioneers who have 
settled at Charleston, the youngest and the most precari¬ 
ously situated of their colonies, show none of the tradi¬ 
tional English disposition to muddle through. They dream 
of empire while their northern brethren are content to 
cling to their settlements along the shore. They are fully 
aware of the menace of the Spaniard for they feel his 
pressure constantly on their flank. Long before any other 
English colonists, they perceive the encircling movement 
of the French and take their own measures to circumvent 
it. Traders all, they follow the paths through the forests 
until their laden pack-trains reach the Mississippi. 

Against all these forces, Old Brim opposes craft and 
cunning. When he thinks it possible to annihilate one of 
the white powers by a single stroke, then only does he 
assemble the warriors of his whole Confederacy and stake 
its fate upon the issue of trial by combat. The Spanish, 
awake at last to the English threat to seize the territory 
that they regard as their own, will no longer trust the 
promises of the Creeks, In 1702 their soldiers and their 
Apalachee warriors advance to the Flint River. With a 
few English traders the Creeks meet them and, by a ruse, 
defeat them. Brim realizes that this advantage is only 
temporary. The tradition of Spanish invincibility must be 
broken once and for all. Creek messengers carry the news 
of the Spanish invasion to Charleston. In December 1703, 
the Creeks concentrate their warriors, one thousand in 
number, at Old Ocmulgee Fields. There to meet them with 
fifty South Carolinians comes James Moore, no longer 


THE GREATEST AMERICAN INDIAN 


13 


Governor but still burning with desire to avenge his fail¬ 
ure at St. Augustine. Under the shadow of the great 
mound that looked down on the formation of the Creek 
Confederacy, that Confederacy forms its first offensive 
alliance with white men. Together the red warriors and 
the white soldiers march against the Spanish settlements 
and Indian villages of Apalachee. Some day, Moore’s 
victory in Apalachee will be placed by historians among 
the decisive battles of the world. The power of .Spain in 
the Southeast is broken. Never again will the Creeks fear 
invasion by the Apalachees, whose villages are destroyed, 
whose missions are burned, and the remnant of whose 
people not killed nor captured cower under the guns of 
St. Augustine. The English can now turn their attention 
to the French, to whom the result of the Apalachee cam¬ 
paign is immensely disturbing. 10 There is good reason for 
their uneasiness, for, before his St. Augustine campaign, 
Moore has told the assembly at Charleston that the over¬ 
throw of the Spanish in Northern Florida would open a 
plain and easy way to remove the French from their set¬ 
tlements on the Gulf. 11 

With their alliance blessed by victory, it would seem the 
English were justified in believing that the Creeks would 
remain their friends. Indeed the permanence of that alli¬ 
ance was proclaimed at a great council of the Confederacy 
held at Coweta in 1705 at which the chiefs and headmen 
signed with their marks “a Humble Submission to the 
Crown of England” in which they professed their fidelity 
to Queen Anne and the Governors of South Carolina. 12 

The name of Hoboyetly, King of the Cowetas, appears 
first among the signatures to that proclamation. If this 
was the Indian name of Brim, he did not long adhere to 
the terms of the document thus signed. 

Once again he takes the field with the English: this 
time with a regular commission to lead his own people un¬ 
der the sanction of the British Queen. In the autumn of 


14 


EMPEROR BRIM 


1711, in company with the South Carolinians, supported 
by the Chickasaws, he leads thirteen hundred of his war¬ 
riors through the Choctaw country. But as he has ob¬ 
served their elaborate preparations to insure the complete 
destruction of the Choctaws, he has perceived the design 
of the English as clearly as if he were able to read the 
correspondence in which they have discussed it among 
themselves. He knows that this is no expedition to punish 
an Indian tribe, but a piece of grand strategy whose suc¬ 
cess will end the French tenure of Louisiana. Brim is will¬ 
ing to curb the growing power of the French by striking 
a blow at their Choctaw allies, but to leave the English 
supreme with no fear of either the Spaniards or the 
French upon which he can play to the advantage of his 
own people is a consummation to which he has no desire 
tocontribute. This explains what would otherwise be a puz¬ 
zling difference between the conduct of the Creeks in this 
campaign and in that of 1703. Now the fierce determina¬ 
tion to destroy their Indian enemies that made the Apa¬ 
lachee war so completely decisive is entirely lacking. Brim 
is willing to take a reasonable number of Choctaw slaves 
—the English pay good prices for them—but he per¬ 
mits the bulk of the inhabitants of the villages to escape, 
and makes no effort to annihilate the Choctaw nation. 
Their numbers are reduced and their military power abat¬ 
ed but enough are left to be used by the French as a threat 
against the English. 13 

And now Brim adopts the spirit, though he knows not 
the words, of the slogan “America for Americans.” He 
forms a plan to exterminate the white men, a plan that 
seems by no means hopeless at the time. If he can combine 
all the Indians and massacre the powerful English, the 
united red men can dispose of the Spanish and the French 
at their leisure. Secretly he sends his messengers to his an¬ 
cient enemies. They reach the Choctaws, the Chickasaws, 
the Cherokees, and the Yamasees. It seems certain that 


THE GREATEST AMERICAN INDIAN 


15 


they go among the more northern tribes as far as the Sene¬ 
cas. 

Only the Chickasaws refuse outright to join the con¬ 
spiracy. The Cherokees encourage Brim to believe that 
they will strike when the hour comes. The Yamasees join 
whole-heartedly. These the English have gathered around 
their settlements. They have been Charleston’s shield and 
buckler. As they are the most trusted, their treachery gives 
Brim good reason to hope for success. 

In 1715, he gives the signal. The English traders among 
the Creeks and among the Choctaws are slain. In South 
Carolina, the Yamasees nearly succeed in their design to 
surprise the English and massacre the entire colony. The 
outlying settlements are wiped out, though Charleston 
does not fall. North Carolina, Virginia, even Maryland, 
hear mutterings of hostility among their neighboring In¬ 
dians. The uneasiness extends to New England. 

But the Cherokees have played Brim false. His whole 
plan of extermination loses momentum while he waits 
for the Cherokees to strike. He realizes that all depends 
upon their action, and sends messenger after messenger 
to their council and even takes the risk of sending a party 
of his warriors into their territory to join in their attack 
upon the English. The Carolinians know that their fate 
is in the hands of the Cherokees and send their messen¬ 
gers and their soldiers among them. Suddenly just as Brim 
believes that they are about to adopt his plan to fall upon 
the English in their country, the Cherokees turn upon 
him, slay all the Creeks in their towns and join the Eng¬ 
lish in an effort to cut off and destroy his war-party. 14 

Never does Brim forgive the Cherokees for this death 
blow to his great scheme. Ten years afterwards, when his 
policy dictates that he be on friendly terms with the Eng¬ 
lish, he will agree to all else that their envoy asks but 
will say, “We have nothing of making a peace with the 
Cherokees. For them men that was killed by the Chero- 


16 


EMPEROR BRIM 


kees of mine when the white people was there is not over 
with me yet nor never shall be while there is a Coweta 
living.” 15 

Desperately, Brim tries to complete the destruction of 
the English despite the defection of the Cherokees. For 
a moment it seems that he may yet succeed as the word 
comes that the Senecas or the Mohawks are about to fall 
upon the Cherokees and the Choctaws are moving east¬ 
ward to join the Creeks in one grand assault upon the set¬ 
tlements of South Carolina, 16 but somewhere in the for¬ 
ests the alliance falls to pieces and the Creeks are left 
alone to face the vengeance of the English. 

Though Brim tried to conceal the fact that he was the 
prime mover in the great conspiracy, the English did not 
permit his people to go unpunished. According to Adair, 
the South Carolinians burned Old Ocmulgee Fields, and 
the sacred spot where the Creek Confederacy was formed 
became a waste town in which only the ghosts of those 
who were slain in its defense walked at night. 17 To avoid 
further reprisals, Brim and his confederated tribes moved 
back to their old seats on the Chattahoochee. 

Nevertheless the South Carolinians had learned to re¬ 
spect and fear Brim too much to feel at ease as long as 
he was in the field against them. On June 4, 1717, they 
thought it good policy to invite him and his chosen chiefs 
to come to their nearest garrison and discuss terms of 
peace, “for the Creeks are a numerous and warlike peo¬ 
ple and their Emperour as great a politician as any Gov- 
ernour in America,” 18 but it was not until June 18, 1718, 
that the Governor was able to report to the Proprietors 
that he had made peace with “the Great Nation of the 
Creeks” and even then he added “but treaties with them 
are very precarious.” 19 

The failure of his great design does not crush Brim. He 
will go no more to war against the white man. In such 
wars as the law of retaliation requires him towage against 


THE GREATEST AMERICAN INDIAN 


17 


other Indians, Chekilli his faithful headman will lead his 
warriors. Henceforth, he will sit in his town on the river 
and devote himself to maintaining the independence of 
his Confederacy by peaceful application of his doctrine 
of the balance of power. He will never join one of the 
white nations in war against another white nation but, 
always when one of the three seeks to encroach upon the 
rights of his people, he will hold over it the threat that 
he will take the field on the side of one of its rivals. 

He accepts the presents of the French, the entertain¬ 
ment of the Spanish, and the favors of the English. 

From his policy, his people reap commercial advantages 
as well as security from invasion. When the Governor of 
South Carolina contemplates sending troops against him, 
the English envoy at Coweta writes to protest against it 
saying “It is the trade governs these people. If there 
comes any army they’ll fly to the French .” 20 

To keep the white men in suspense, Brim does not ob¬ 
ject to the Upper Creeks favoring one side while the 
Lower Creeks favor the other. He even encourages a di¬ 
vision of allegiance between his two sons. Seepeycoffee be¬ 
comes the favorite and honored guest first of the Span¬ 
ish and then of the French. His other son Hollata throws 
himself whole-heartedly into the English cause and dies 
fighting with the English against the Yamasees. 

When the white men accuse him of double-dealing he 
feels no shame, for he knows that it does not lie in their 
mouths to make such a charge. Quietly he reminds Tobias 
Fitch that he has heard that Colonel Chicken and his 
South Carolinians are among the Cherokees giving them 
encouragement against the Creeks, while Fitch is at Cowe¬ 
ta trying to induce Brim to make peace with those same 
Cherokees. Again, he suggests to Fitch that his people 
cannot understand the presence of Englishmen among the 
Yamasees, though, of course, he professes his own com¬ 
plete satisfaction with Fitch’s explanation . 21 


18 


EMPEROR BRIM 


These delicate intimations that he has fathomed the 
secret of their forest diplomacy are not very reassuring to 
the South Carolinians; for since 1717 their hope of ac¬ 
complishing the ultimate purpose of all their negotiations 
with the Creeks and the Cherokees has depended on keep¬ 
ing both in ignorance of the design starkly outlined by 
Joseph Boone to the Proprietors in these words, “It is a 
matter of great weight to us how to hold both as our 
friends for some time and assist them in cutting one anoth¬ 
er’s throats without offending either. If we cannot de¬ 
stroy one nation of Indians by another our country must 
be lost.” 22 

Hollata’s death makes a change in the plans of Brim. 
The law of retaliation requires that it be avenged upon 
the Yamasees. But they are now allies of Spain and ene¬ 
mies of the English, so Seepeycoffee must leave his friends 
the French and join the English in order to avenge his 
brother’s death. 

Brim turns this necessity to account by securing the sup¬ 
port of the English for Seepeycoffee as his successor. He 
tells Fitch that he is now too old for the charge he has 
and since Hollata is dead there is none left of his family 
but Seepeycoffee who is fit to take that charge upon him 
and it is the general opinion of his people that Seepeycof¬ 
fee should succeed him. 23 

And so on December 15, 1725, in the last council of 
his people over which we see him preside, he hears Fitch 
confer the King of England’s commission upon Seepey¬ 
coffee “to be commander-in-chief of this nation under his 
father Emperor Brim’s direction.” 24 

The pathos of his appeal for English recognition of 
Seepeycoffee and the pomp and ceremony with which that 
recognition is received, convince the South Carolinians 
that, in his old age, Brim has abandoned his life-long pol¬ 
icy of keeping the three white nations guessing and is now 
trusting wholly in the friendship of the English. Accord- 


THE GREATEST AMERICAN INDIAN 


19 


ingly* they assume that his failing eyes will not detect their 
maneuvers to have the Cherokees and Chickasaws ex¬ 
terminate the Creeks. 

They quickly realize that they have overestimated the 
effect of senility upon his faculties. At the first hostile 
move of the Cherokees and Chickasaws, he makes his 
counter-move. In the spring of 1726, he journeys with 
Seepeycoffee down the river to Apalachicola where he is 
met by the headmen of the Lower Creek tribes. There he 
contrives that Samuel Sleigh shall see them and receive 
the information that they are on their way to St. Augus¬ 
tine to make a firm treaty with the Spaniards to disregard 
the English forever. The medicine works. The South 
Carolinians are cured of their yearning for war among 
the Indian tribes. Their sole desire now is to preserve the 
peace. And peace Brim has the rest of his days. 25 

He is dead when Oglethorpe comes to Coweta in 1739 
and his son reigns in his stead, advised by the wise Chekil- 
li; but the influence of his teaching directs the policy of 
his people throughout the years to come. The neighboring 
tribes grow weaker and weaker but the Creek Confedera¬ 
cy waxes strong and holds fast to its lands, to lose them 
only when there remains but one white nation to press up¬ 
on them and Brim’s doctrine of the balance of power can¬ 
not be applied to stop the advancing Georgians. 

Oglethorpe called him “the great Brim.” 26 Those inter¬ 
ested in doing belated justice to his memory may well ar¬ 
gue that he was the greatest of his race and rest their argu¬ 
ment upon the contrast between the contempt of the white 
invaders for other Indian chiefs and their respect for Brim 
as revealed by two fragments of the lost history of the 
Southeast that have escaped oblivion. 

Commenting on the servility with which in 1694 the 
Chief of the Yamasees obeyed the order of the Quaker 
John Archdale to proceed to St. Augustine and surrender 
four Christian Indian slaves to the Spaniards, John Old- 


20 


EMPEROR BRIM 


mixon wrote, “which may serve to give us an Idea of the 
Power of an Indian King, who receives Orders from a 
Governour of a small Province, as Carolina was then 
whatever it is now.” 27 

Oldmixon’s History of South Carolina containing this 
comment was published in 1708. When experience had 
forced upon the European mind some appreciation of the 
Creek Emperor’s genius, a Frenchman, after luridly and 
inaccurately portraying Brim’s part in the Yamasee War 
and the retaliation of the English, drew this picture of 
him: 

“But as they saw that they would take vengeance 
with interest, they made very great presents to the 
emperor to regain his friendship. The French do the 
same thing and, also the Spaniards, which makes him 
very rich, for the French who go to visit him are 
served on a silver dish. He is a man of good appear¬ 
ance and good character. He has numbers of slaves 
who are busy day and night cooking food for those 
going and coming to visit him. He seldom goes on 
foot, always on well harnessed horses. He is absolute 
in his nation. He has a quantity of cattle and kills 
them sometimes to feast his friends. No one has ever 
been able to make him take sides with one of the 
three European nations who know him, he alleging 
that he wishes to see everyone, to be neutral, and not 
to espouse any of the quarrels which the French, Eng¬ 
lish, and Spaniards have with one another.” 28 

As we look upon him through the eyes of that French¬ 
man and behold him rich and honored in the place of 
power to which he has risen from the depths of failure, 
surrounded by his confederated tribes secure in the posses¬ 
sion of the homes of their fathers; as we remember that 
he and his people had no source of material wealth save 
the ground from which they raised their crops by primitive 
methods of agriculture and the forests where they slew 


THE GREATEST AMERICAN INDIAN 


21 


their game with rude weapons, that they possessed no 
metals nor anything else to trade with the white man ex¬ 
cept captive slaves and skins of beasts, that they had no 
books nor any written language and even the traditions 
handed down to them by word of mouth were undated for 
want of a measure for the lapse of time, and that all his 
achievements were the work of his own intelligence unaid¬ 
ed by the wisdom of scholars or the lessons of recorded 
history; we doubt that we have done him full justice in 
limiting our comparison to others of his own race and we 
wonder which of the white men styled “the Great” by 
their admirers could, with so little, have done so much. 


22 


EMPEROR BRIM 


NOTES 


References to Archivo General de Indias, herein abbreviated 
A. G. I., are from copies in the University of Georgia Library; 
those to British Public Record Office, Board of Trade, herein ab¬ 
breviated B. P. R. 0. B. T., are from copies in the office of A. S. Sal¬ 
ley, Secretary of the Historical Commission of South Carolina; 
those to Journals of the Commons House of Assembly of South 
Carolina, herein abbreviated J. C. H. A., are from printed copies 
edited 1 by A. S. Salley, and published by the Historical Commission 
of South Carolina. 

1. N. D. Mereness, Ed. Travels in the American Colonies, New 
York, 1916, pp. 176 et seq. 

2. A. G. I. Santo Domingo 54-5-11. 

3. John Tate Lanning, The Spanish Missions of Georgia, Chapel 
Hill 1936, p. 173. 

4. A. G. I. Mexico 58-4-23. 

5. Herbert E. Bolton, Spain’s Title to Georgia, Berkeley 1925, 
pp. 48 et seq. Lanning op. cit. pp. 177 et. seq. 

6. William Bartram, Travels through North and South Carolina, 
Georgia, etc. Dublin 1793, p. 63. 

7. John R. Swanton, Early History of the Creek Indians and 
their Neighbors, Washington 1922, p. 442, 

8. S. G. McLendon, History of the Public Domain of Georgia, 
Atlanta 1924, p. 11. 

9. Swanton, op. cit. p. 117. 

10. Ibid pp. 120 et. seq. 

11. J. C. H. A. 1702, p. 64. 

12. Verner W. Crane, The Southern Frontier, Durham 1928, p. 83. 

13. Crane, op. cit. pp. 95 and 96, where the Choctaw expedition is 
described. 

14. Crane, op. cit. Chap. VII., contains the best account of the 
Yamassee War. 

15. Mereness, Ed. op. cit. p. 182. 

16. B. P. R. 0. B. T., Vol. 10, Q. p. 121. 

17. James Adair, History of the American Indians, Johnson City, 
1930, p. 39. The South Carolina records contain nothing to 
verify Adair’s statement. They credit the Cherokees with caus¬ 
ing the withdrawal of the Creeks to the Chattahoochee. 

18. B. P. R. O. B. T., Vol. 10, Q. p. 121. 

19. Ibid p. 157. 


R D 1 2.8 



THE GREATEST AMERICAN INDIAN 


23 


20. Crane, op. cit. p. 272. 

21. Mereness, Ed. op. cit. p. 204. 

22. B. P. R. 0. B. T. Vol. 10, Q. p. 126. 

23. Mereness, Ed., op. cit. p. 183. 

24. Ibid, p. 209. 

25. Crane, op. cit. p. 269. 

26. Mereness, Ed., op. cit. p. 215. 

27. A. S. Salley, Ed., Narratives of Early Carolina, New York, 
1911 , p. 336 . 

28. Swanton, op. cit. pp. 225 et seq. Quoted by permission of Dr. 
Swanton. 


THE PICTURE 

This is, of course, purely fanciful. It was drawn by Mrs. Lamar 
Harrell from data furnished by me. If scientists detect any inac¬ 
curacies in it, the fault is mine not hers. The head-dress is a com¬ 
bination of the warrior’s crown described by Bartram and that ac¬ 
tually worn by William McIntosh, Chief of the Cowetas a hundred 
years later. The cape is from that of a Seminole chief pictured in 
Bartram’s Travels. The shirt is worn as described by the compan¬ 
ions of Oglethorpe. The saddle is from Adair’s description. The 
sword and axe are drawn from those interred with a Creek chief 
in Old Ocmulgee Fields during the time of Brim’s reign. The de¬ 
signs on the blanket and on the harness are taken from Creek pot¬ 
tery of the same period. Other details are from equally authentic 
sources. 

There may be some well-founded criticism of Brim’s carrying 
the calumet in his own hand, but all contemporary writers agree 
that the royal standard of feathers either of the eagle or of the black 
vulture always accompanied the Chief of the Cowetas, so we let him 
carry it to get it in the picture. 

Only the mare is modern; she is my own. 

—W. A. H, 









0 


& I ■> 


v. A % *p' 

' • > V «v ,0' . 

A .A ,VtS®£\ V A* * 



^ A v / 

vv 


^ ^ ; 

- * A** 

> ' . . AT O 'o. * * A <\ * 

*•#> o ^ yJJrnl- °o A 4>'' ^ 






A a v .VQliB 


y 




* 



° c ^ ^.p ° (///'Si#’ 

* <>? •> v J&AK * 

<G V °w ' 0 -*‘ < 

O v ^ ^ 





) o 


* •A ^ . 

c o " C <£ 

A v •^'V\\ r )'*-k J ‘ 'X. 

<*^ O A. ^MIA - *P> A 


•* 0 n ■*■, *• "Sf * j^, O. 

0 ^ SfW 1 ** <S o 

f° ^ " 1 ° < V 

*"*®- V V *1V1> u- aV 

m’- a. .a .VSfew. -V a* * 


^ v^BV ».*'"** 

<iv "’ a* ... 



"W 



^ • O 




C vP 

CA v/> 

** «? <$v °. v #% v V V ^ 

,G V ^ 'o. * * A <v * 

r 0 v t • L '*« ^o A> o 0 * 0 * <K 

^ * OPTril ///-?_ - ^ -S\\\\\^ 



> 


c, a* 

■ -> ,r 



o 1 


A 9, 


■a." A> * 

K * w 




* c 



<N < 
& : 


5 9* -i 



- n° “V «> 

° “ 0 A 0 ^ "' A V 

i0 »’.*«- > V ..*VL'» 



CA <JV 

* <y '^ k . •»„-,. 

* . s 9 ,6 V O 'o . * - , 

o^ .'"•. ^o A 

0 ° W* 

^ 0 - “ o V 


O * » 



•/ ./% 

<* <\ <“ ^ 

A 4 ^ 

N v ^XV'Ai'Si. ^ "V, 










f 


O' 



* <V^» 

/ ^ ^ 

4 \J O * O . Jl * <\ -. 

,0 V t • 1 ■'A •» ^ o A^ c 0 ^ 

c ^^/ITTpA^ ° .sr ^ 


-v>. 



o 5O -7*, ” ^ 

^0 ^ 



c v 



V* ° 

* <G^ ^5 'o . * 

0^ c * 118 + 


A. ^ 


c 



o 


4 o^ 

-a?- ^ 

A* * < 

0 * 0 ' a u %> 9 ' 1 * 4 

^ A 0 *1*®' > 0 S*-*' 

«^5te* =• 

* A A .0*- • '^ * \ 

* # 4SSK- ^ 0 °0 




4 o. 

<i, > AN « 

a I s CV ^ _ 

A ° 4 * * 0 N 0 ° A. 0 

V ** V*'* cv ,0 V ^ • 0 

,1^ 





^ • * 1 < v 

> \/ s 5 

v* ,V- 







AV 


N 


o V 


<a* 


.4^ 


c, \P 

* V> ^ 

^ <1/ fi*. 

A' <* ,0^ Vs o. 

# .<-W% Vf> . 0 ' .•''.*■> 'o 



° *° A 

J 

Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing Agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: _ 

DEC 



1337 

MEEEEB 


^ 0 ?'#$!%£■■ 


PRESERVATION TECHNOLOGIES. L.P. 
111 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Twp., PA 16066 
(412)779-2111 







* 'V -#■ °Wv ’V 

A%' V <U '« • * * ,<T ^ 

^ rx> ^ ,2sW//7<^ * « * ' srvxxv>s,A ' - 

o v . HmwQp v* Cr 

■0 T*. * S^E-hb^n * Ho 

<y «<\ 


'•ISPs** ^ V A V 

% *?AA* A <* 

A V ^ 



\N 

1/4 ^ 

* o> 

V^/XW ^ % 

r & °k 4P t »LW^ ^ V * t * °- < 

<£ *f^V‘ A V^ /jAV^o 

° 'W "j^BSi: .®M- 



S V/\ 


^ N- 


* A <\* 'o . * * (A «b *^T*' / 

i°'4;:-, °o A A A 

- ^ <V ^JsmTA * *p • •* 

. "o v . - r , 

.0 * . —= ^"“"7 Q 

v'*^* A A 

aO t *L<w> ^ V - Y * ° 

^ -^uu.:..®^ " ' ^ V 0) 



o V 


^ V 

• A V ♦ ({ 


* o o v % s • ° , ^ 

,% %, A? Sj$St!hi+ 

° A A o b^ffllSA r 


aH?V>v «?> ^ • 

<, '<..»* ,CT Ab 

<A A **> 


C3 

jpjgPfV A ^ V, V • 

^ ,.0^ 0° N<? ^ ^O , t » ^ 7> 

G o J- k/yyA r ^ 

-* ^ H V\v\\^ <N ^ &?ni f. 

- ** 0^ *o ^ K 


/s* *° ^ ' » & 

V ^0 A, "A 



4 O 
-0? ^ 

V.-*.To^*y o / ^'* 

• % k AVa % % A *‘^[fe'- 

' VV ' i >'$rJ/y}y. s 's~ v » ysfsiiJlfe.: - 


- ^d« 

• 4 ^ 



' A « 

* A o 

■<?) V o. 

•«> V v p y * °- c 

4 r$* A V 

: s^h v * ^^7/A, ° 

. Jvv ^ A •™„^, 

<>'»..' k % ^'hT* -A 

^ %> ,0’ «»*•♦ ^b J.^ 

V G * O -A 

’- A o^ • 

,* A o 


O 

.Ho. > * A v*. 

.* A o \<mrs o A ’ 

A °<. *•■’• f° v 

> v v * * a °* o % s • •, A 

^ -G ’‘rx 1 ^,^/,*. ^ /A '- a &\$0Ar 

* < ‘rcC\SffA A ^ -Tb AA,« 

C> 


■V 

x>> A 

HD V 


,0 




A 

o N o° V 
8 v f ’ * ° 


>°\ 

»^*’,» 0 -H «.t 

\ "■V .*k-V--' v'’ 

H. a» .• Jfe ■- w .•> 






































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































